My review of Sacred 2 after playing Coop for 4 hours last night.
Graphics:
I must say I was wondering how ugly this was going to look after seeing the review about graphics being nothing to brag about. I think they need to clean their glasses or stop sniffing that glue, because the graphics in this game are really good. The world is alive with waves crashing into the shore, rivers are flowing, fish swim in the water, rabbits hop around, stuff swaying in the breeze, grass moves when you run through it, shadows and lighting. It looks very GOOD to me.
Controls:
The controls took a little the get used to but are not bad. You have 12 slots for spells which is good. I found out you must hold A to attack and while holding it can move the left analog stick to change targets. When opening the interface you can use A button to pick the screen you want to go too or just release the Left Bumper.
Interface: The interface is not bad once you get into it. You use the left/right buttons and bumpers to move around and they have lots of screens with info on skills and attributes. I could not figure out how to use the Compare correctly, but it seems to try and switch back and forth between two items you viewed. Hopefully someone can figure that one out. I don't like we cant trade with offline buddy, but I did hear they are looking at that.
Gameplay:
We had a blast doing quests and finding caves to explore and loot. Some quests give more xp and gold than others and there are tons of them too. We started with Bronze but will restart with silver to make it a little more challenging. Finding new loot and a person to swap combat skills out with was very rewarding. Using the different weapons and skills is where this game id fun. The summoning of the undead with the shadow warrior was cool and they explode when they run out of time too.
Overall:
We did not have any framerate issues while playing, but you do have some screen tearing when rotating the camera view. It was not that bad and did not really matter once we got to playing and having fun. If you like these type of hack and slash games you will like this one. It will take a long time to fully explore the large world in this game. I would give it a 4.5/5. Nothing is perfect but this one is close :-)
Beautiful game (updated)
Review Date: November 18, 2008
Reviewer: Steven J. Freeman, Redmond, WA United States
So - the first Sacred game was one of my all-time favorites (along with Diablo 2). Bought this on the first day available.
The graphics are fantastic, but of course you pay for it in system performance. Not quite as smooth as the first Sacred, but it's definitely playable.
The game play is pretty much the same as in Sacred, with a combination of monster-killing in the countryside, and mini-quests in the cities (which involve running from point A to point B a lot).
-- Update --
So, they've patched a bunch of bugs and improved game performance. My previous issue with a lack of game pausing has been fixed as well. Overall, this is probably the most re-playable game I own. I'm probably gonna stay addicted to it until Diablo 3 comes out...
A great game being braught down by human operation errors.
Review Date: May 31, 2009
Reviewer: Jared Rudd, Mosul, Iraq
Sacred 2 is a great game that plays exactly like the old Diablo for the PS1(if you every played it, it was fun). You play one of six different character classes, and choose if you are going to play a good campaign or an evil campaign. You are allowed to have up to 8 different characters at a time. The cool thing with this is that there is a hero box in the cities that you can put items that you find into it with one character quit with that character and load up one of your other characters and retrieve the item you just put in there with your other character.
First thing first, let me post about some of the earlier reviews of the game. One of the previous review posts(This is where the Human error comes in). The 1 star review for not being able to save for not being connected to or having an XBL Gold account. I am currently deployed to and serving in Iraq. I have absolutely no internet connection for my XBOX 360 in my room. I have no problems saving my game either. It does however at the very start of the game loading up ask you and tell you that you are not connected to XBL and will not be able to take advantage of certain XBL features please choose a storage device to save on. If you do not pay attention to this and rush through it and hit the (B) button you will get the remark stating you cannot save your game. I accidentally did this and just restarted and continued playing. SO to close this bit. YOU CAN SAVE WITHOUT XBOX LIVE OR A GOLD ACCOUNT.
For the fatal save error that is a system problem not a game problem.
Another review I read said that they took the game back because they could not read what was on there screen due to the letters were horrible or they had to small of a TV. I am running a 19" non high def LCD TV in Iraq and I can see everything just fine. Again it may be the LCD that clears the picture up a bit but I can read everything just fine on my TV.
Now back to the game. The graphics are beautiful in this game. In the XBOX 360 version you have complete camera control. Your left thumb stick moves your character around and the right thumb stick will rotate the camera left and right or zoom in and zoom out. You play from a angleed top down third person perspective like you would in Diablo. Sometimes the view is not great but it worls really well for the game. I only wish I was home to play this on my 52" 1080p LCD widescreen TV and my digital surround sound. The ambiant sounds and the music for the game are very fitting and bring you even deeper into the game. The story is there but you have to really look for it and pay attention to it. But it is just as vague as any other MMO/hack and slash style game. Then again the devs paid more attention to game play and other features over story which is fine with me.
The game does have it's faults however. But in my honest opinion they are minor nit picking gripes that plague any game out there. For starters the camer angle does limit you on the distance that you can see but it is the nature of the game type that makes it that way. Some of the character models look funny when they run but that is a minor nit pick. You cannot choose to be a different sex for each of the different classes. But I do understand why they did that. As stated earlier you have to dig and pay attention if you want to understand the story. A map would have been an excellent addition to the game. And my only real personal gripe is that there is no system link.
Overall the game is very fun and time consuming like most games that fall into this catagory. So as far as the story goes you can completely lose yourself and forget what the story really is(I did this as a matter of fact) by running all of the side quests that you can possibly do in the game. So if you are looking for a game that is going give you the bang for your buck and you enjoy an open world(sandbox style) of grinding, looting, searching for better armor, weapons, and gear to create the nastiest character ever I highly recommend this game.
Hope this helps a bit. I am sorry if it is confusing but my brain is just trying to vomit all of this information out and can't control where it is flowing.
JD
Fight effectively from the back of a number of mounts under your control, including ones exclusive to character classes.
A 22 square mile, seamless and dynamic fantasy world that allows for free-form exploration.
Two parrallel campiagns: Play as the Light or Shadow side, complete with distinct skills, rewards, and story-elements tailored to the chosen path.
Six exceptional, playable characters, each with a distinct look, capabilities and in-game motivation.
Captivating online modes via PlayStation Network (PSN) challenge gamer's in cooperative PvP and PvE play.
Great Game